PHEASANT, Roast, Brillat Savarin’s Recipe (à la Sainte Alliance).
When the pheasant is in good condition to be cooked, it should be plucked, and not before. The bird should then be stuffed in the following manner:—Take two snipes, and draw them, putting the bodies on one plate, and the livers, &c., on another. Take off the flesh, and mince it finely with a little beef, lard, a few truffles, pepper and salt to taste, and stuff the pheasant carefully with this. Cut a slice of bread, larger considerably than the bird, and cover it with the liver, &c., and a few truffles: an anchovy and a little fresh butter added to these will do no harm. Put the bread, &c., into the dripping-pan, and, when the bird is roasted, place it on the preparation, and surround it with Florida oranges.
Do not be uneasy, Savarin adds, about your dinner; for a pheasant served in this way is fit for beings better than men. The pheasant itself is a very good bird; and, imbibing the dressing and the flavour of the truffle and snipe, it becomes thrice better.
PHEASANT SOUP.
Ingredients.—2 pheasants, ¼ lb. of butter, 2 slices of ham, 2 large onions sliced, ½ head of celery, the crumb of two French rolls, the yolks of 2 eggs boiled hard; salt and cayenne to taste, a little pounded mace, if liked; 3 quarts of stock medium. Mode.—Cut up the pheasants, flour and braise them in the butter and ham till they are of a nice brown, but not burnt. Put them in a stewpan, with the onions, celery, stock, and seasoning, and simmer for 2 hours. Strain the soup; pound the breasts with the crumb of the roll previously soaked, and the yolks of the eggs; put it to the soup, give one boil, and serve. Time.—2½ hours. Average cost, 2s. 10d. per quart, or, if made with fragments of cold game, 1s. Seasonable from October to February. Sufficient for 10 persons.
Note.—Fragments, pieces and bones of cold game, may be used to great advantage in this soup, and then 1 pheasant will suffice.
PICKLE, an Excellent.
Ingredients.—Equal quantities of medium-sized onions, cucumbers, and sauce-apples; 1½ teaspoonful of salt, ¾ teaspoonful of cayenne, 1 wineglassful of soy, 1 wineglassful of sherry; vinegar. Mode.—Slice sufficient cucumbers, onions, and apples to fill a pint stone jar, taking care to cut the slices very thin; arrange them in alternate layers, adding at the same time salt and cayenne in the above proportion; pour in the soy and wine, and fill up with vinegar. It will be fit for use the day it is made. Seasonable in August and September,
PICKLE, Indian (very Superior).
Ingredients.—To each gallon of vinegar allow 6 cloves of garlic, 12 shalots, 2 sticks of sliced horseradish, ¼ lb. of bruised ginger, 2 oz. of whole black pepper, 1 oz. of long pepper, 1 oz. of allspice, 12 cloves, ¼ oz. of cayenne, 2 oz. of mustard-seed, ¼ lb. of mustard, 1 oz. of turmeric; a white cabbage, cauliflowers, radish-pods, French beans, gherkins, small round pickling-onions, nasturtiums, capsicums, chilies, &c. Mode.—Cut the cabbage, which must be hard and white, into slices, and the cauliflowers into small branches; sprinkle salt over them in a large dish, and let them remain two days; then dry them, and put them into a very large jar, with garlic, shalots, horseradish, ginger, pepper, allspice, and cloves, in the above proportions. Boil sufficient vinegar to cover them, which pour over, and, when cold, cover up to keep them free from dust. As the other things for the pickle ripen at different times, they may be added as they are ready: these will be radish-pods, French beans, gherkins, small onions, nasturtiums, capsicums, chilies, &c., &c. As these are procured, they must, first of all, be washed in a little cold vinegar, wiped, and then simply added to the other ingredients in the large jar, only taking care that they are covered by the vinegar. If more vinegar should be wanted to add to the pickle, do not omit first to boil it before adding it to the rest. When you have collected all the things you require, turn all out in a large pan, and thoroughly mix them. Now put the mixed vegetables into smaller jars, without any of the vinegar; then boil the vinegar again, adding as much more as will be required to fill the different jars, and also cayenne, mustard-seed, turmeric, and mustard, which must be well mixed with a little cold vinegar, allowing the quantities named above to each gallon of vinegar. Pour the vinegar, boiling hot, over the pickle, and when cold, tie down with a bladder. If the pickle is wanted for immediate use, the vinegar should be boiled twice more, but the better way is to make it during one season for use during the next. It will keep for years, if care is taken that the vegetables are quite covered by the vinegar.